1. Field of the Invention
The field of the invention is data processing, or, more specifically, methods, apparatus, and products for testing an electrical component.
2. Description of Related Art
The development of the EDVAC computer system of 1948 is often cited as the beginning of the computer era. Since that time, computer systems have evolved into extremely complicated devices. Today′s computers are much more sophisticated than early systems such as the EDVAC. Computer systems typically include a combination of hardware and software components, application programs, operating systems, processors, buses, memory, input/output devices, and so on. As advances in semiconductor processing and computer architecture push the performance of the computer higher and higher, more sophisticated computer software has evolved to take advantage of the higher performance of the hardware, resulting in computer systems today that are much more powerful than just a few years ago. Computer systems today are often capable of including one or more modular components, components which may be removed and replaced with ease. Such components are typically formed with a printed circuit board (‘PCB’) with many traces etched on the PBC. The manufacturer of such a PCB typically manufactures the PCB, according to some manufacturing tolerances, such as trace width tolerances, tolerances for the material composition of the traces and PCB substrate, tolerances for the position and angles of the etched traces, and other manufacturing tolerances, any of which may affect electrical characteristics of the trace, the PCB, electrical components soldered to the traces, and a computer system in which such a component is installed. Because two electrical components may be manufactured within such manufacturing tolerances, the electrical operating characteristics of two electrical components of the same type may actually vary. Such variations may introduce a small or large amount of variation of electrical characteristics in a larger electrical system in which the component is installed. In fact, in a multi-component system, with each component manufactured within manufacturing tolerances, such variations may compound, causing a large deviation from expected system operation. Current techniques for testing electrical components, however, often do not test for variation within these manufacturing tolerances. Specifically, variation in impedance between traces of PCBs of same-type components, is often ignored. In fact, the only current way to test an electrical component taking into account possible variations in manufacturing tolerances, is to test a batch of different PCBs of the same-type of component. Such a test, however, does not guarantee that the entire range of manufacturing tolerances is taken into account, but instead typically represents only a small number tolerance variations.